This invention relates to a communication control equipment and a communication control method, and more particularly to a communication control equipment and a communication control method suitable when used, e.g., in video on demand system, etc. for providing multimedia data.
FIG. 1 shows one example of conceivable configuration of VOD (Video On Demand) system using the ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) network at the backbone side and the IEEE (The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Inc.) 1394 serial bus (IEEE 1394 Standards Draft 8.0v2) at the front end side.
An ATM terminal 1 is a server for storing video data, etc., and is connected to an ATM network 2 through UNI (User-Network Interface) to make an offer of video data to 1394 terminals 4-1 to 4-7 (hereinafter referred to as 1394 terminals 4 as occasion may demand when there is no necessity to individually discriminate between 1394 terminals 4-1 to 4-7). An ATM/1394 repeater 3 is connected to the ATM network 2 through UNI and serves to receive video data transmitted from the ATM terminal 1 via the ATM network 2 to make an offer thereof to the 1394 terminals 4 through the IEEE 1394 serial bus. The 1394 terminals 4 receive video data offered through the IEEE 1394 serial bus from the ATM/1394 repeater 3 to display them on respective display units such as CRT or LCD, etc.
In this VOD system, when the ATM terminal 1 carries out communication between the ATM terminal 1 and any 1394 terminal 4, protocol peculiar to ATM must be entirely terminated at the ATM/1394 repeater 3.
In the case where IP over ATM (hereinafter abbreviated as IP/ATM) is used as the standard protocol when, e.g., the ATM terminal 1 carries out transmission/reception of IP (Internet Protocol) packet between the ATM terminal 1 and the 1394 terminal 4, protocol stacks of the U (User) plane and the C (Control) plane of end to end are caused to respectively undergo layout as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.
Namely, as shown in FIG. 2, the protocol stack of the U plane of the ATM network 2 consists of PHY (physical) layer and ATM layer. Accordingly, the protocol stack of the U plane of the ATM terminal 1 includes PHY layer and ATM layer in correspondence with the ATM network 2, and includes IP/ATM layer and IP layer for carrying out transmission/reception of IP packet. Further, between the ATM layer and the IP/ATM layer, the protocol stack of the U plane of the ATM terminal 1 includes AAL (ATM Adaptation Layer) 5 for carrying out matching/adjustment between data unit (user information from 1 byte up to 64 k bytes) of the high order (upper) application (IP/ATM layer) and user information of 48 bytes handled by cell in a unified manner.
In the protocol stack of the U plane of the ATM/1394 repeater 3, the ATM network 2 side is caused to be of structure similar to the ATM terminal 1. Namely, this protocol stack consists of PHY layer, ATM layer, AAL5 layer, IP/ATM layer and IP layer. On the other hand, the 1394 terminal 4 side is caused to be of structure similar to the protocol stack of the 1394 terminal 4 and consists of 1394 PHY layer, 1394 LINK layer and IP layer. There is no layer corresponding to the IP/ATM layer of the ATM network 2 side (Therefore, labeled null in FIG. 2) (It is to be noted that it is conceivable to place (allocate) protocol like IP/1394). The protocol stack of the U plane of the 1394 terminal 4 consists of 1394 PHY layer, 1394 LINK layer and IP layer.
Moreover, as shown in FIG. 3, the protocol stack of the C plane of the ATM terminal 1 consists of PHY layer, ATM layer, AAL5 layer, SSCF (Service Specific Coordination Function) (ITU (International Telecommunication Union)-TQ.2130)+SSCOP (Service Specific Connection Oriented Prtocol) (ITU-TQ.2110) layer, and Q.2931 (ITU-TQ.2931) layer. The protocol stack of the C plane of the ATM network 2 is caused to be of structure similar to the case of the ATM terminal 1.
In the protocol stack of the C plane of the ATM/1394 repeater 3, the ATM network 2 side is caused to be of structure similar to the case of the ATM terminal 1 and the ATM network 2. On the other hand, the 1394 terminal 4 side is caused to be of structure similar to the protocol stack of the 1394 terminal 4, and consists of 1394 PHY layer, 1394 LINK layer and Original Signaling Protocol layer. The protocol stack of the C plane of the 1394 terminal 4 consists of 1394 PHY layer, 1394 LINK layer and Original Signaling Protocol layer.
Since the concept of VPC (Virtual Pass Connection)/VCC (Virtual Channel Connection) does not exist between the ATM/1394 repeater 3 and the 1394 terminal 4 as shown in FIG. 2, it is conceivable to carry out handling of packet of the U plane by IP header. In that case, for the ATM/1394 repeater 3, routing function by IP is required.
Moreover, since the signaling protocol (Q.2931 layer and SSCF+SSCOP layer) used in UNI of the ATM network 2 cannot be applied between the ATM/1394 repeater 3 and the 1394 terminal 4 as shown in FIG. 3, it is necessary to peculiarly design original signaling protocol corresponding thereto to use such protocol.
However, in the ATM/1394 repeater 3, in the case where handling of packet of the U plane is carried out by using the routing function by IP, it is necessary to copy the entirety of IP packet including data to read therefrom information necessary for routing, resulting in the problem that burden (load) applied to the ATM/1394 repeater 3 is great.
In addition, there occurs the necessity of developing the original signaling protocol used between the ATM/1394 repeater 3 and the 1394 terminal 4 from the first stage. To realize this, great amount of investment is required, resulting in the problem that such approach was not realistic.
This invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and its object is to have ability to lessen the burden of the repeater when transmission/reception of data of different transmission standards is carried out between terminals through the repeater, and to reduce the development steps of the system.
A communication control equipment according to this invention comprises: first converting means for converting data of a second transmission standard received through a repeater into data of a first transmission standard; and second converting means for converting predetermined data of the first transmission standard into data of the second transmission standard.
A communication control method according to this invention comprises: a step of converting data of a first transmission standard received through a repeater into data of a second transmission standard; and a step of converting predetermined data of the second transmission standard into data of the first transmission standard.
A communication control equipment according to this invention comprises: first converting means for converting data of a first transmission standard transmitted from a first terminal into data of a second transmission standard; second converting means for converting data of the second transmission standard transmitted from a second terminal into data of the first transmission standard; and processing means for processing, by the same signaling protocol as signaling protocol that the first terminal has, the data of the first transmission standard transmitted from the first terminal and the data of the first transmission standard converted by the second converting means.
A communication control method according to this invention comprises: a first conversion step of converting data of a first transmission standard transmitted from a first terminal into data of a second transmission standard; a second conversion step of converting data of the second transmission standard transmitted from a second terminal into data of the first transmission standard; and a processing step of processing, by the same signaling protocol as signaling protocol that the first terminal has, the data of the first transmission standard transmitted from the first terminal and the data of the first transmission standard converted by the second converting means.
A communication control equipment according to this invention is adapted so that the repeater comprises first converting means for converting data of a first transmission standard transmitted from the first terminal into data of a second transmission standard, and second converting means for converting data of the second transmission standard transmitted from the second terminal into data of the first transmission standard; and the second terminal comprises third converting means for converting the data of the second transmission standard which has been caused to undergo transmission (transmitted) from the repeater into data of the first transmission standard, and fourth converting means for converting predetermined data of the first transmission standard into data of the second transmission standard.
A communication control method according to this invention is adapted so that processing procedure by the repeater comprises a step of converting data of a first transmission standard transmitted from a first terminal into data of a second transmission standard to carry out transmission thereof (transmit it) to a second terminal, and a step of converting data of the second transmission standard transmitted from the second terminal into data of the first transmission standard to carry out transmission thereof (transmit it) to the first terminal; and processing procedure by the second terminal comprises a step of converting the data of the second transmission standard which has been caused to undergo transmission (transmitted) through the repeater into data of the first transmission standard, and a step of converting predetermined data of the first transmission standard into data of the second transmission standard to carry out transmission thereof (transmit it) to the repeater.
A communication control equipment according to this invention comprises setting means for setting, in advance, by using predetermined control commands, communication channel (path) for transferring data of the transmission standard that the terminal and any other terminal carry out transmission/reception therebetween through the repeater or directly therebetween.
A communication control method according to this invention comprises a step of setting, in advance, by using predetermined control commands, communication channel (path) for transferring data of the transmission standard that the terminal and any other terminal carry out transmission/reception therebetween through the terminal or directly therebetween.
In the communication control equipment according to this invention, the first converting means converts data of the first transmission standard received through the repeater into data of the second transmission standard, and the second converting means converts predetermined data of the second transmission standard into data of the first transmission standard.
In the communication control method according to this invention, data of the first transmission standard received through the repeater is converted into data of the second transmission standard, and predetermined data of the second transmission standard is converted into data of the first transmission standard.
In the communication control equipment and the communication control method according to this invention, data of the first transmission standard transmitted from the first terminal and data of the first transmission standard converted by the second converting means are processed by the same signaling protocol as the signaling protocol that the first terminal has.
In the communication control equipment according to this invention, at the repeater, the first converting means converts data of the first transmission standard transmitted from the first terminal into data of the second transmission standard, and the second converting means converts data of the second transmission standard transmitted from the second terminal into data of the first transmission standard. In addition, at the second terminal, the third converting means converts data of the second transmission standard which has been caused to undergo transmission (transmitted) from the repeater into data of the first transmission standard, and the fourth converting means converts predetermined data of the first transmission standard into data of the second transmission standard.
In the communication control method according to this invention, the repeater converts data of the first transmission standard transmitted from the first terminal into data of the second transmission standard to carry out transmission thereof (transmit it) to the second terminal, and converts data of the second transmission standard transmitted from the second terminal into data of the first transmission standard to carry out transmission thereof (transmit it) to the second terminal. The second terminal converts the data of the second transmission standard which has been caused to undergo transmission (transmitted) through the repeater into data of the first transmission standard, and converts predetermined data of the first transmission standard into data of the second transmission standard to carry out transmission thereof (transmit it) to the repeater.
In the communication control equipment and the communication control method according to this invention, the communication channel (path) for transferring data of the transmission standard that the terminal and any other terminal carry out transmission/reception is set in advance by using predetermined control commands therebetween through the repeater or directly therebeteen.
While the embodiments of this invention will now be described, the features of this invention will be described in a manner as below prior to the description of the embodiments of this invention in the state where corresponding embodiments (one example in this case) are added to the inside of parentheses after respective means in order to clarify the correspondence relationship between respective means of the inventions described in the patent claims and the following embodiments.
A communication control equipment according to this invention comprises first converting means (e.g., ASEL 32 of FIG. 54) for converting data of the second transmission standard (e.g., IEEE 1394 standard) received through the repeater (e.g., ATM/1394 repeater 3 of FIG. 4) into data of the first transmission standard (e.g., ATM standard), and second converting means (e.g., ASEL 32 of FIG. 54) for converting predetermined data of the first transmission standard into data of the second transmission standard.
The communication control equipment according to this invention further comprises processing means (e.g., layer 36 of FIG. 55) for processing data of the first transmission standard by the same signaling protocol as signaling protocol that the terminal has.
A communication control equipment according to this invention comprises first converting means (e.g, ASEL 33 of FIG. 55) for converting data of the first transmission standard (e.g., standard of ATM) transmitted from the first terminal (e.g., ATM terminal 1 of FIG. 4) into data of the second transmission standard (e.g., standard of IEEE 1394), second converting means (e.g., ASEL 33 of FIG. 55) for converting data of the second transmission standard transmitted from the second terminal (e.g., 1394 terminal 4-1 of FIG. 4) into data of the first transmission standard, and processing means (e.g., layer 35 of FIG. 55) for processing, by the same signaling protocol as the signaling protocol that the first terminal has, the data of the first transmission standard transmitted from the first terminal and the data of the first transmission standard converted by the second converting means.
The communication control equipment according to this invention further comprises repeater means (e.g., ASEL 31 of FIG. 54) such that in the case where plural second terminals (e.g., 1394 terminals 22-1 and 23-1 of FIG. 4) are connected onto different transmission channels (paths) of the second transmission standard, it repeats data of the second transmission standard in the U-plane which is caused to undergo transmission/reception between the plural second terminals.
The communication control equipment according to this invention further comprises repeater means (e.g., ASEL 31 of FIG. 54) such that in the case where plural second terminals (e.g., 1394 terminals 22-1 and 22-2 of FIG. 4) are connected onto the same transmission channel (path) of the second transmission standard, it allows data of the second transmission standard in the U-plane which is caused to undergo transmission/reception between the plural second terminals to be substantially therethrough to repeat it.
A communication control equipment according to this invention is such that the repeater (e.g., ATM/1394 repeater 3 of FIG. 4) comprises first converting means (e.g., ASEL 31 of FIG. 54) for converting data of the first transmission standard (e.g., standard of ATM) transmitted from the first terminal (e.g., ATM terminal 1 of FIG. 4) into data of the second transmission standard (e.g., standard of IEEE 1394), and second converting means (e.g., ASEL 31 of FIG. 54) for converting data of the the second transmission standard transmitted from the second terminal (e.g., 1394 terminal 4-1 of FIG. 4) into data of the first transmission standard; and the second terminal comprises third converting means (e.g., ASEL 32 of FIG. 54) for converting data of the second transmission standard which has been caused to undergo transmission (transmitted) from the repeater into data of the first transmission standard, and fourth converting means for converting predetermined data of the first transmission standard into data of the second transmission standard.
A communication control equipment according to this invention comprises setting means for setting, in advance, by predetermined control commands, communication channel (path) for transferring data of the transmission standard that the terminal (e.g., 1394 terminal 4-1 of FIG. 4) and another terminal (e.g., 1394 terminal 4-2 of FIG. 4) carry out transmission/reception therebetween through the repeater (e.g., ATM/1394 repeater 3 of FIG. 4) or directly therebetween.
It is to be noted that the aforesaid description does not mean that the respective means are limited to the above-described components.